RICS publishes new professional standard on promotion, option and overage agreements - effective 1 March 2026

RICS publishes new professional standard on promotion, option and overage agreements - effective 1 March 2026 → RICS has published a new professional standard: Land agreements for development purposes (1st edition, December 2025), effective 1 March 2026. It covers promotion agreements, option agreements, conditional contracts and overage, and is intended to improve consistency in advice across the profession. → One point is worth underlining: agreements that run smoothly tend to do so because the heads of terms clearly reflect the parties' commercial aims, not because issues are 'sorted out' later. → Over a multi-year promotion or option, relatively small definitions can become commercially significant. In particular: responsibilities and decision-making (including matters requiring approval); timetable, key milestones, extensions and longstop provisions; costs and recoverability (and the transparency around them); and valuation basis and trigger points (including how 'market value' is defined and applied). → These are familiar topics, yet they are often where alignment is tested, especially once planning is secured and value crystallises. If heads of terms are being discussed, we are happy to talk through the commercial structure early on.